South Dakota
Recapping a thrilling night of championship basketball in South Dakota
SIOUX FALLS — There are great championship games.
And then there’s nights like Saturday, in which South Dakota had three tremendous state championship games played around the state.
All three title games were decided in the final minute, with two going to overtime. Each of the teams had waited at least 19 years for a state championship, that being the case of the Kernels, while it was a 41-year wait for Hamlin and 60 years in the making for Howard.
Averaging the three title game victory margins, it was the closest night of boys championship hoops since 2015. That season saw Hanson win in overtime in Class B, Aberdeen Roncalli pull out a three-point win in Class A and a single basket decide the title game in Class AA (Lincoln over Washington, 47-45). Those games were decided by a combined nine points, just like Saturday night.
As you’ll see below, the similarities from Saturday are striking to nine years ago.
Here’s a short look at how it all happened and the notable history involved:
Adam Thury / Mitchell Republic
Mitchell 46, Brandon Valley 45
How it was won: Mitchell’s Gavin Hinker was on the right end of a nifty pass by Markus Talley to lay in the go-ahead basket with 30 seconds remaining to lead 46-45. Mitchell made that hold up, as they denied Brandon Valley’s late offensive effort and forced a long 3-pointer by Josh Olthoff to come up short to set off the Kernel celebration.
Quotable: “It went down to the wire because these are the best teams in the state,” Mitchell’s Colton Smith said. “We’re here for a reason, and it showed.”
Facts to know:
- The Mitchell-Brandon Valley game was the first Class AA title game decided by a single point since Roosevelt beat Rapid City Central 55-54 in 2000.
- For the first time since 1993 and 1994, Class AA has had consecutive state championship matchups featuring Eastern South Dakota Conference teams. Along those lines, ESD teams with Yankton and Mitchell have won back-to-back championships in Class AA for the first time since 2018 and 2019 when Yankton and Brandon Valley won it all.
- Mitchell’s 46-45 win was the second-lowest combined scoring output in a Class AA title game in the last decade. Only Yankton’s 39-37 win over Harrisburg in 2018 saw fewer points.
- For only the second time since the start of the SoDak 16 in Class AA basketball in 2018, the No. 1 seed won four games in a row to claim the state championship. Mitchell joined 2022 Sioux Falls Roosevelt as the only top-seeds to win the state title since the 16-team bracket format went into use.
Hamlin 53, Sioux Falls Christian 50 (OT)
Aidan DeBoer / South Dakota Public Broadcasting
How it was won: Hamlin led by as many as 15 points early in the third quarter but saw that slip away and trail by five with 3:50 left. Hamlin’s Tyson Stevenson banked home a 3-pointer with 20 seconds left to tie the game at 47-all, and Stevenson capped huge effort with five of Hamlin’s six points in overtime, ending Sioux Falls Christian’s undefeated run in the title game.
Quotable: “1983 was the last time we won one. This tells you how old I am, I was 11,” Hamlin’s Todd Neuendorf told South Dakota Public Broadcasting after the game. “What a great following from our community. They’re really happy. Big win for Hamlin County.”
Facts to know:
- Hamlin is the first Class A state champion from outside the Dakota XII Conference since Aberdeen Roncalli in 2015. That Cavaliers team was also coached by current Chargers coach Todd Neuendorf.
- Teams playing twice in one season is increasingly rare in South Dakota, especially in Class A or Class B, so three meetings in a single season is an extreme outlier. And the Hamlin won the third matchup with SF Christian after falling the first two times against the No. 1 team for most of the season. The first two meetings were decided by 2 and 8 points, making the entire series decided by 13 points.
- The win ended the longest win streak in the state held by Sioux Falls Christian at 25 games in a row. Mitchell now has the longest win streak in the state at 17 consecutive victories.
- With Sioux Falls Christian’s loss, there was not an undefeated team in South Dakota boys basketball for the first time since 2021.
Howard 60, De Smet 55 (OT)
Jacob Nielson / Mitchell Republic
How it was won: For the second time in the tournament, De Smet’s George Jensen was the late-game hero, draining a shot with no time left in regulation to tie the game at 52-all. But Howard prevailed in overtime, coolly draining free throws to swipe away the victory in the last minute of the extra session for Howard’s first state title in 60 years.
Quotable: “We knew that they’re De Smet. We’ve never beat them. I’ve never beat De Smet,” Howard standout Luke Koepsell said. “So to finally get them, it feels good. We kept saying they’ve won enough. It’s our turn now, we deserve it. And we figured out a way to win.”
Facts to know:
- Howard is the first No. 5 seed or higher to win a state championship in Class B since Hanson did it in 2015. The Beavers were also the No. 5 seed and like the Tigers, won their title game in overtime, which is the last Class B state overtime title contest.
- The championship game was also the first title game in Aberdeen since 2018 to be decided by five points or less. The game had 12 lead changes and nine ties.
- Howard did not make a field goal in overtime, making eight free throws in the extra period to win the game. The Tigers were 17-for-19 on free throws and were 31 of 37 on free throws in the semifinals and championship combined.
- De Smet was playing in its fifth consecutive state championship game, losing in 2019 and winning titles in 2021, 2022 and 2023, with the COVID canceled tournament in 2020, as well. White River has the Class B record for consecutive title game apperances with six from 2008 to 2013.
Marcus Traxler is the assistant editor and sports editor for the Mitchell Republic. A past winner of the state’s Outstanding Young Journalist award and the 2023 South Dakota Sportswriter of the Year, he’s worked for the newspaper since 2014 and covers a wide variety of topics. A Minnesota native, Traxler can be reached at mtraxler@mitchellrepublic.com.
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South Dakota
South Dakota State vs. No. 17 Oklahoma State live stream (8/31/24): Watch college football, Week 1 online
![South Dakota State vs. No. 17 Oklahoma State live stream (8/31/24): Watch college football, Week 1 online South Dakota State vs. No. 17 Oklahoma State live stream (8/31/24): Watch college football, Week 1 online](https://www.nj.com/resizer/v2/P2NH7TDAORCA3K2CFKZ3D37LHE.jpg?auth=27a73779c5e6defa1fa563e3ee42ddc0fe62687da0c8b6ecc5664751c4c0c4a2&width=1280&quality=90)
The South Dakota State Jackrabbits face the No. 17 Oklahoma State Cowboys on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024 (8/31/24) at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Fans can watch the game with a subscription to ESPN+.
Here’s what you need to know:
What: NCAA Football, Week 1
Who: South Dakota State vs. Oklahoma State
When: Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024 (8/31/24)
Where: Boone Pickens Stadium
Time: 2 p.m. ET
TV: N/A
Channel finder: Verizon Fios, AT&T U-verse, Comcast Xfinity, Spectrum/Charter, Optimum/Altice,Cox,DIRECTV, Dish, Hulu, fuboTV, Sling.
Live stream: ESPN+
***
Here’s a college football story from the Associated Press:
Y’all ain’t played nobody!
It might as well be college football’s slogan. Debates about strength of schedule are part of the fabric of the sport, like marching bands, cheerleaders and tailgating.
With the size of the College Football Playoff tripling in size from four teams to 12 this season — including seven at-large bids — expect the arguments over the relative difficulty of teams’ schedules to increase exponentially.
The posturing and politicking has already begun.
“This is the NFL of college football in my mind,” Nebraska coach Matt Rhule said during Big Ten media days. At Southeastern Conference media days, the NFL was also invoked when the topic steered to schedules.
“As coaches we want to play the best. People forget that when you’ve spent time in the NFL, every week was like that,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “So when Texas and Oklahoma came into the conference, every schedule was going to get harder.”
The debates aren’t just about which conferences are the best. With super-sized conferences of 16-18 teams, the differences in strength of schedule within leagues can be significant.
The CFP selection committee uses a strength-of-schedule rating provided by SportSource Analytics that includes components such as wins and losses, scoring differential and game location.
Balancing who you played with how you played will be harder than ever.
“There’s a weight on the committee that’s new. I want to see how the committee processes that,” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said during spring meetings. “And my encouragement is that this, ‘Well, we have an undefeated team so they’re in’ is not the standard. It never was the standard. Obviously, that stirred up controversy last year.”
Toughest schedules in the Power Four
There are dozens of data-based rating systems to measure the relative strength of college football teams, and all have some type of schedule-rating component.
The AP took three systems — ESPN’s SP+, FEI and KFord Ratings — and averaged their strength of schedule rankings for all 134 Bowl Subdivision teams to determine where each Power Four team’s schedule ranks nationally (all games, not just conference games, are factored in).
Using those projections, SEC teams on average will be facing the toughest schedules this season.
The average strength-of-schedule ranking among the 16 SEC teams is 11.2, from Florida (a unanimous No. 1 among all three systems) to Missouri at 36.7.
Half the teams in the SEC have schedules with an average national ranking of 10 or better, including No. 1 Georgia at 3.7. No. 11 Missouri is the only SEC team with an average schedule-strength ranking below 25.3.
Rating the rest
The Big Ten, now including Southern California, UCLA, Oregon and Washington, is next with an average strength-of-schedule ranking of 26.9 among its 18 teams.
Purdue’s 7.7 average ranking is the highest followed by No. 23 USC at 9. Big Ten favorite No. 2 Ohio State’s average is 34. No. 3 Oregon’s is 26.7.
The ACC and Big 12 are about the same. The 17-team ACC has an average strength of schedule ranking of 49.9. The 16-team Big 12′s average ranking is 47.3.
Assessing strength of schedule
Straight up rankings can be deceiving. How to quantify the difference between facing the sixth-ranked schedule and 26th?
Brian Fremeau, the creator of FEI, does it three ways, asking three questions: How many games would an elite team lose facing a particular schedule? How many would a good team lose? How many would an average team lose?
AP used FEI’s strength of schedule ratings based on good teams in its composite rankings, since good teams are going to be the ones in the CFP race.
Based on FEI projections, the difference between playing Georgia’s schedule (rated 3.4 among the hardest in the nation) and Ohio State (34) is about one more loss for a good team against the Bulldogs’ slate. The difference between Alabama’s schedule and Big 12 favorite Utah’s is about two losses for a good team against the Tide’s.
If these schedule strength projections held — they will change throughout the season — it would then be reasonable to compare an 11-1 Utah to a 9-3 Alabama.
Reasonable to compare doesn’t necessarily mean the one with the tougher schedule should automatically be ranked higher.
“I don’t judge a team on its schedule. I judge a team on how it performs against a schedule, or my system does. And that is a little more of a nuanced take then, ‘Well, we played a tougher set of opponents than you did, therefore, we’re better,’” Fremeau said. “There’s a bit of a balancing act between the two.”
Intraconference debates
The SEC and Big Ten are both bigger and division-less for the first time. That necessitated new tiebreaker procedures to determine which teams qualify for conference title games featuring the top two teams in the standings.
Within the guidelines is an acknowledgment that the rigor of conference schedules will vary when teams are playing barely half the league. After head-to-head and record vs. common opponents are used to break ties, both leagues go to results that favor the team that fared better against the better conference opponents they play.
The ACC, a year ahead of the the SEC and Big Ten in abandoning divisions, has a similar nod within its tiebreakers to strength of schedule.
ACC Associate Commissioner Michael Strickland said the conference used 10 years of data that measures the success of its football teams to help create a new schedule rotation that would be competitively balanced. But the ACC also to had weigh travel now that Stanford, California and SMU are members, as well as protecting some traditional annual rivalries.
The ACC’s fourth two-team tiebreaker is combined winning percentage of conference opponents.
“Our head football coaches suggested that we insert that during our review process,” Strickland said.
The CFP choices
The CFP field announced Dec. 8 will be comprised of the five highest-ranked conference champions, regardless of league, and seven at-large selections. There is no limit to the number of at-large bids a conference can receive.
The most interesting comparisons for the CFP selection committee might end up being between the many conference rivals that do not play each other in the regular season.
What to do with a 10-2 Missouri and a 9-3 Alabama (composite strength-of-schedule ranking, 9.3)? Or Iowa (37) at 10-2 and Michigan (16) at 9-3? Over in the ACC, what would happen while assessing a 10-2 Virginia Tech (68) and a 9-3 Florida State (30.3)?
“Especially when we’re picking (seven) teams now, we’re looking at the loss column with a bit more scrutiny,” Fremeau said. “They’re going to be debating teams like that with a one or possibly two-game difference in record, but a comparable difference in expected schedule rating and they’re going to have that debate about which one they value more.”
(The Associated Press contributed to this report)
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South Dakota
Obituary for Corry Francis Baragar at Kirk Funeral Home & Cremation Services
South Dakota
PFB Picks: Predictions for Oklahoma State’s Season-Opening Game against South Dakota State
![PFB Picks: Predictions for Oklahoma State’s Season-Opening Game against South Dakota State PFB Picks: Predictions for Oklahoma State’s Season-Opening Game against South Dakota State](https://pistolsfiringblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/53309569546_2e784b8f59_k-1000x600.jpg)
For the first time in 2024, the Oklahoma State Cowboys are playing a football game.
OSU hosts back-to-back FCS champion South Dakota State at 1 p.m. Saturday in Boone Pickens Stadium. The game will be streamed on ESPN+. The Cowboys have extremely high expectations heading into this season, but their primer against an FCS school is against a team that hasn’t lost since its 2022 season opener.
This is how the PFB staff sees OSU’s season opener going.
Marshall Scott
Score: Oklahoma State 35, South Dakota State 24
Game MVP: Ollie Gordon
Uniform: White (brand)-orange-white
Thoughts: I felt better about this for the Pokes’ game before watching Colorado struggle to the final seconds against North Dakota State on Thursday night. This South Dakota State team is supposed to be better than the ones the Buffaloes faced. But, I also think this Oklahoma State team is better than Prime’s squad right now. In the end, I think it will come down to OSU’s offensive line just being better than the Jackrabbits’ defensive line. South Dakota State is replacing a lot from last season, whereas the Cowboys are returning so much. For that reason, I think the Cowboys take advantage of the Jackrabbits working through some things. Still, I expect this to be a game going into the fourth quarter, but that O-line and Ollie Gordon will be too much for South Dakota State this early in the season.
Kyle Cox
Score: Oklahoma State 38, South Dakota State 27
Game MVP: Alan Bowman
Uniform: Orange (brand)-orange-orange
Thoughts: I think the Cowboys weather an early scare and take a multi-score lead into the first half before the Jackrabbits make it more than interesting in the second. OSU almost wins with a little comfort before a backdoor SDSU touchdown makes it look even closer. I tabbed Bowman as my MVP not only to give us something else to talk about. I think Mike Gundy is bent on limiting Ollie Gordon’s carries when he can and as long as the passing game is cooking, and I’m predicting it will, he spreads the rock around to the likes of Sesi Vaihali and Trent Howland.
Dekota Gregory
Score: Oklahoma State 38, South Dakota State 27
Game MVP: Ollie Gordon
Uniform: Orange (brand)-orange-white
Thoughts: Hype and expectations get to some people. But Ollie Gordon, I don’t truly believe, is human. He will thrive on the hype that’s surrounded him all offseason, especially for the season opener. This game will have OSU fans sweating (and not just because of the afternoon heat) almost all game. It’ll be hotter than the Jackrabbits are used to, OSU is just flat out deeper as a top FBS program and Ollie Gordon always gets stronger as the game goes on. My game MVP makes the ending of this one more comfortable than the first three quarters as he has a monstrous late drive to put the Pokes up two scores late.
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